Brie Souffle by tam

foodifotos.blogspot.com

Ingredients
5 large egg whites at room temperature
4 oz of Brie, cubed and rind removed (half of the wheel above)
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of water
¼ cup water
dash of cream of tartar
1 electric hand mixer or whisk and a hand that won’t quit

After preheating the oven to 350°F and generously buttering the sides of three 4″ ramekins, melt the cheese in a small pot with water over medium heat. Stir constantly. When the cheese is evenly melted, add the cornstarch and stir. As soon as the mixture starts to bubble, remove from heat, transfer to a plastic or glass bowl, and beat with the hand mixer on medium for 3-5 minutes or until cool. This helps maintain small fat particles evenly disbursed through out the mixture, otherwise puddles of oil form. Once cooled, in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on high until a stiff peak forms. It’s very important the whites are at room temperature before beating. You could speed things up by putting the eggs in warm water before separating yolk from whites.

Once the egg whites and cheese are evenly folded, fill the buttered ramekins. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven and serve immediately. Make sure to say “Voilà” while you serve it. As you can see, 3 went in but only 2 are in the foto. This was because I had to eat one to make sure it was cooked…it’s really the only way to be absolutely certain. These light, airy souffles had plenty of the Brie flavor. I intentionally avoided a complicated recipe to not detract from the cheese, one of my rare good decisions. The salty Brie puffed well and added just enough fat content to the souffle for some creaminess without preventing the rising. The crusty muffin top reminded me of eating slightly charred cheese, which I loved to do as a kid, so there was a slight nostalgic aspect to this recipe.

So my sincere thanks goes to Ile de France for providing me some of their delicious Brie to sample. If ever a dish calls for Brie, I would definitely consider getting more, since my cooking experience with it has been a great one.

This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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